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the presence of the Lord, into utter destruction, they cannot hope to escape the same punishment. Think not then, my Impenitent Friends, that you will avoid the effects of the Divine displeasure because, as you imagine, you are not as depraved as some sinners. Do you tremble for the vile and abandoned sinner, tremble for yourselves. You are exposed to the same doom. Do not flatter yourselves that others are greater sinners than yourselves. Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. You stand on the same ground with the abandoned and profane, and unless Divine grace prevent, will go to the same place. Let sinners then of every class turn to the Lord. In his righteousness you may hope. But without it, though you may give all your goods to feed the poor and your body to be burned, it all will profit you nothing. You can in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven.

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EFFECT OF PRESENT HABITS OF THOUGHT ON THE

CHARACTER.

MORAL

To the mind which soberly contemplates its interest beyond the grave, there is something extremely solemn in the idea of approaching an unalterable state. The evils sustained here are greatly mitigated to the sufferer, by the hope that they may at some time be removed; and that a change of circumstances may diminish his afflictions, and brighten his prospects. But in eternity, no expectation of change will ever lighten the burden of the impenitent, nor excite a momentary pang in the bosom of glorified spirits. The sinner will then no longer indulge his delusive dreams of happiness; the trembling soul, which mourned for sin during all its pilgrimage, will then no more fear a separation from the favor of its Lord. No meanness of conception or narrowness of intellect can destroy the magnificence of that which is in its nature so intrinsically sublime.

But whatever notions may be entertained concerning the silent and certain approach to a world of retribution, the fact of such constant approach possesses a commanding interest. To be conscious, that in each step of the advance towards an untried world, the preparation is making for our unalterable condition in that region, and still, to act as if the present life had no reference to eternity, proves a delusion which can be accounted for only by the divine declaration, that "madness is in the hearts" of men while they live." In a complicated piece of machinery, where every part has an indispensable connexion with all the others, and a determinate effect of the movements of the whole, no workman ever thought of leaving any part to an ignorant or careless mechanic. A character which is forming every day, and of which all the exercises of the mind go to constitute their definite proportion, cannot be too carefully inspected in each stage of its formation. I shall not be required to bring any argument in support of this position, by those who believe, that the principles of the individual have a permanent influence on his life. Neither can it be necessary to show, that the actions of a man, in their turn, exert a controlling influence on the opinions, One long inured to vice has, of conse

These potions he cherishes

quence, loose notions on moral subjects. in his own breast to silence his conscience, which might otherwise become troublesome; he advances them to others in defence of those crimes by which they were generated.

The use to be made of the foregoing reflection is obvious. Let every action of our life be accompanied with a serious consideration of the share it may have in fixing our destiny in a state that admits no change. I would recommend, that in our daily occupations, the mind should dwell frequently on the nature of its employments, and the temper they produce. That we should inquire, with strict examination, whether the affections now expanding be such as we would willingly entertain when we meet the eye of Infinite Purity; whether we have any resemblance to the devotion of the spiritual worshippers in his temple; and should the cold hand of death be now laid upon us, whether we could willingly receive the summons, with precisely the same feelings indulged at this moment. N. P.

MISCELLANEOUS.

EXTRACTS FROM THE DIARY OF THE REV. COTTON MATHER.

(Continued from p. 306.)

Jan. 11. 1713. 1. Good devised. That the devices of Satan may not operate on the flock to which I am related, especially in the affair of swarming into another congregation, I must make more than ordinary supplications unto heaven.

2. G. D. My poor son Increase gives me great cause to suspect that he yet continues too much a stranger to the religion of the closet. I am in distress on this occasion. I must make him very sensible of it. I must continually both charge him, and examine him how and where he keeps my charges. My God, pity this child. My God, pity this child. O give a perfect

heart unto him.

3. G. D. I have a kinsman, a physician at Windsor, whom I may employ in many good offices, and am glad I find him disposed for doing them. I do indeed use him to do good in all the towns bordering upon that of which he is an inhabitant. But I would particularly make use of him to supply me with such curiosities of nature, as he may become master of, that I may transmit them to the Royal Society.

5. G. D. Among the Indian Commissioners, I would propose, that at our meetings we lay before ourselves the account which the last visitation of the Indians has obtained for us; and at the successive meetings consider one paragraph after another, with propositions upon each paragraph, for what good may be done among them.

6. G. D. There is a gentleman at Rhode Island who is a man of education and of ingenuity, but whose morals have been extremely corrupted. He has an esteem for me, and I have some other advantages to be useful to him. Old age also is now coming upon him. I would write unto this gentleman, and send certain books to him, and do the best I can to bring him unto repentance.

7. G. D. I must very diligently look over my library, and see whether I have any borrowed books in it that should have been more

carefully restored before this time, and faithfully and honestly restore them. The peace of my mind, particularly in publishing a discourse about theft, and the welfare of my library, are concerned in this action. The sermon I preached the last Lord's day upon the sin of theft, it seems made an uncommon impression upon the auditory, and the publication of it is by some earnestly called for. I thought a testimony against the crime, and a discovery of the many ways, (and some of them not resented as they ought to be,) wherein it is committed, might be a service to the town and the land. So I did this week fit the sermon for the press, and sent it thither. It is entitled A flying roll, gone forth to enter into the house and hand of the thief; the crime and the doom of the thief declared: the various ways of his theft described, and a repentance demanded from the malefactor.

1. G. D. Perhaps that subject of the good man hating vain thoughts, may prove a copious, a noble, and a useful subject for my flock to be entertained withal.

2. G. D. By tarrying abroad in my visits after nine o'clock at night, I defraud my family of many and precious opportunities, which I might have to communicate useful things unto them. Wherefore, I would reform this error in my conduct, and repair home earlier than formerly, and spend an hour, first, in cultivating the mind of my son Increase with all ornamental knowledge; secondly, in teaching my daughters the Hebrew tongue; thirdly in repeating to my family any valuable thing, which I have read in the day, proper for them to be acquainted with.

4. A church being about to be gathered in a neighboring town, I would afford them all the direction and assistance I can, that they may proceed comfortably.

The sin of promise-breaking is grown so notorious, and is so much complained of, that a sermon against it at the lecture, as soon I can, may be a seasonable service.

5. G. D. Still as I come near the young house-keepers in my neighborhood, I would advise them and exhort them to join themselves unto one or other of the religious societies. Thus the societies may flourish, and the particular persons under the watch thereof be preserved from temptations.

6. G. D. There are some poor scholars, whom it will be an act of charity in me to assist, by bestowing such books upon them, as may much befriend them in the beginning of a library and a ministry. This is a thing which I desire to take pains, and be at some cost about.

7. G. D. I send abundance of letters and packets abroad; as often as I send any thing unto another, I would form out of the occasion a suitable supplication on the behalf of those to whom I send it. In this way I would carry on the exercise of that grace of love; and at the same time, look on every visit I make unto heaven as a privilege and a dignity.

2. G. D. My soul is in unspeakable distress to see the image of a glorious Christ formed in the souls of my children. What shall I do, what shall I do to obtain so great a blessedness? Let this be one among the many other methods for it. When I keep a day of prayer in

my study, I would still call for one or other of my children, at some time VOL. XV.

44

in the day, and after I have discoursed with the child, I would then pray with him, and pour out my soul unto the Lord in his hearing, for this grace to be bestowed upon him.

3. G. D. The book of "practical piety exemplified" in the lives of Mrs. Terry, and Mrs. I would present unto some gentlewomen

unto whom I am related.

Since I began the practice I have constantly maintained it, of spending the best part of an hour every Tuesday morning, prostrate in the dust before the Lord, with cries unto him in behalf of his church in the several parts of the world, especially, our own depraved and betrayed nation. In this action I have enjoyed an unspeakable communion with heaven, and a comfortable assurance of my being a member of that body whereof my blessed Jesus is the head! and it has left a sweet impression on my mind, and a sensible improvement in piety has been the consequence of it. Sometimes, and very particularly this morning, I have had my mind mightily enlightened in begging of the glorious Lord, that he would not utterly cast off his poor creature, man; but visit mankind, and by his Holy Spirit possess, and enlighten, and purify, vast numbers among the children of men, and render the world like a watered garden, by mighty effusions from the river of God upon it. I pleaded, that his kind intentions towards mankind have been in an astonishing manner signalized in his uniting a man unto his own sacred person, advancing a man unto the matchless dignity of the hypostatical union. There has also been a signal and wondrous intimation of those kind intentions, in what the Holy Spirit has done for a few, that have been singled out from the ruins of the human race, and been made the children of God, and beautiful temples, in which he has chosen to dwell forever. I am filled with unutterable groans for the day to come on, when mankind shall more generally see and become the kingdom of God. Some great thing is at the door.

5. G. D. I foresee a precious opportunity to do good unto many in preparing and publishing a discourse on the wrongs done to the glorious Jesus, by people who are not aware of what they do. If I live to finish it, I may enter a further account of it.

4. G. D. A body of Christianized Indians at Sandwich, is, as I fear, likely to be destroyed by a wicked fellow selling of rum unto them. I will immediately despatch a vehement letter unto that neighborhood, for the stopping of so great a mischief. And I would also prepare a circular letter unto the ministers, who have the care of the Indians, to direct and excite their care of the schools under their inspection.

6. G. D. There is a poor man, who has been a forward professor of religion, but is now fallen into the snares of the bottle. I must, with discretion and charity, use means for his recovery.

7. G. D. I am writing a little book about the establishment of the law by the faith of the Gospel. In the conclusion of the book I give a demonstration, that a justifying faith in the righteousness of our Savior is no enemy to the law of holiness, I describe some justified believers in characters that carry an observable holiness and piety in them.

(To be continued.)

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ON CONTEMPTUOUS TREATMENT OF THE SCRIPTURes.

It would appear somewhat difficult, at the first view, to assign a motive for the endeavors of some professedly Christian ministers, to lower the claims of the Gospel on our belief, by denying its authority as a direct revelation from God. These persons must certainly know the uniform propensity of men to fall below the standard chosen by themselves for the regulation of their actions. Nor can they be ignorant of the fact, that all institutions, merely human, infallibly decline. However pure in their origin, or well directed the intentions of their founders may have been, it is beyond contradiction, that many establishments have entirely changed their direction; their whole force has been diverted from its primary object: till, in the end, they become the active instruments of injuring the same cause which they were designed to strengthen and defend.

The past and present condition of the world has shown the necessity of an elevated standard of morals. Any system of rules for regula ting human action, having to contend every moment with the strong current of human depravity, cannot be enforced without full evidence that they are the positive commands of God. Not less clearly has it been shown, that the sanctions of such laws should present as powerful an appeal to the mind of the subject as can be made to his conscience and his heart. Such laws are contained in the Sacred Oracles, and such are the sanctions annexed to them. From the complete evidence that these are, what they claim to be, the statutes of the King of kings, are to be expected an acknowledgment of their justice, and submission to their authority. Whoever else may doubt of the inspiration of the Scriptures, I should not have expected to discover sceptics among the sober and the reflecting. Last of all others, should I have looked for them among the public teachers of Christianity itself.

But to my astonishment, I see some of these very men, passing under the appellation of the ministers of the Gospel, ascend the pulpit, and endeavor to prostrate revelation at the foot of their bewildered reason; I observed tliem direct their arguments to destroy the positive testimony of the Word of God; to show, that the sacred writings usually denominated the Bible, are only the productions of fallible men, who detailed simply their own opinions on religious subjects, and were in all respects as liable to errors as any other men. Whatever else may be the ultimate design of these teachers, they certainly do not intend preaching the Gospel, in the same sense as the apostles preached it, nor does it mean the same thing in their language. The salvation of sinners can be no part of their object. Indeed the very term salvation must be to them a sound without meaning; for in their theory, men are not guilty sinners, without merit, and without any recommendation to the favor of God; but are either good enough now, or can easily be so by a little attention to cultivating the good principles already within us. At the next and a very easy step, the atonement is denied, and this conclusion will follow from two of their determined positions. First, man in a natural condition is so virtuous a being he needs no atone

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